Prime Minister's Office
Prime Minister terms Jammu & Kashmir as the crown of India
Says it is our responsibility to pull it out of its decades’ old turmoil
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said Young India is not willing to procrastinate issues and is willing to combat separatism and terrorism.He was addressing the NCC Rally in Delhi today.
Urging the country to develop a youthful mindset and zest, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the problem of Jammu & Kashmir had been persisting for decades.
“The Problem of Jammu & Kashmir was persisting ever since the country attained its independence. What has been done for the solving the problem? “, he said.
He said, “About 3 to 4 families and political parties were not only interested in finding solution of the problem but also in keeping the issue unsolved”
“the result of this was that Kashmir got destroyed by continued terrorism in which thousands of innocents were killed”
“Government was made to stand as a mute spectator as lakhs of people were evicted from their homes in the state”, he said.
Referring to the Article 370, Prime Minister said it was meant to be a temporary arrangement but that continued for 7 decades owing to the vote bank politics of some political parties.
“Kashmir is the crown of the country and to pull it out of its turmoil is our responsibility”, he said.
Prime Minister also said that abrogation of Article 370 was aimed at solving long standing problem in Jammu and Kashmir.
Surgical Strikes and Air Strikes to Combat Terror
He said, “Our neighbour fought three wars with us but our forces defeated it in all the wars. Now it is fighting proxy-war with us and thousands of ourcitizens are being killed”.
“But what was the thinking on this issue before. It was being looked at as a Law & Order problem”, he said.
Prime Minister said the issue was kept to linger on and the security forces were never given a chance to act.
“Today India is progressing with a youthful thinking and mindset and hence it was able to launch surgical strike, air strike and directly attack the terror camps”.
Prime Minister said the result of these actions is that today there is an all-round peace in the country and that terrorism has reduced considerably.
National War Memorial:
Prime Minister said that some in the country did not want a memorial for martyrs of the country.
“Instead of boosting the morale of the security forces, there was an effort to hurt the pride of the forces”, he said.
He said that following the wishes of the young India, today a National War Memorial and National Police Memorial were built in Delhi.
Chief of Defence Staff
Prime Minster said that all over the world armed forces are undergoing a transformation and there is a greater emphasis on the coordination of the Army, Navy & the Airforce.
In this direction there was a demand for a Chief of Defence Staff  for many decades but unfortunately the indecisiveness prevailed, he said.
He said drawing the inspiration from a youthful thinking and mindset, the Government has appointed a CDS.
“The creation of the post of CDS and appointing the new CDS have been done by our Government”, he said.
Induction of Rafale – Next Generation Fighter Plane
On the issue of modernisation and technical upgradation of armed forces, Prime Minister said that anyone who loves the country would want his nation’s security forces to be modern and upgraded.
But he lamented that even after 30 years the Indian Airforce could not acquire a single Next Generation Fight Plane.
“Our aircraft were old and accident prone, martyring our fighter pilots”, he said.
“We could complete that task which was pending for over 3 decades. Today I am happy that after three decades of waiting, Indian Air Force could get the Next Generation Fighter Plane – Rafale”, he said.